I'm writing a book. I'm posting parts of it here as a "dry run". (Got that idea from Donald Miller-- his site is fancier than mine.) Imput would be awesome!!!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

"Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." -- John F. Kennedy

“When I consider Your heavens,

the work of Your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which You have set in place,

what is mankind that you are
mindful of Him,

human beings that you care
for them?”

-- Psalm 8:3-4

I’ve spent five days with teenagers. It’s like being a
pretend parent without having to save for college, or worry about the long-term
impact of the pizza rolls and cheese sticks we’ve been gorging ourselves on in
passing.

They are good kids. Most teenagers are, despite what the
local media would like you to believe. Here’s the trick: they actually have to
believe you like them, which means you have to like them because nobody,
particularly teenagers, likes a phony. (If you don’t believe me, read The Catcher
in the Rye.) That accomplished, all of the rest of the relational ickyness
will work itself out.

This week I’ve seen so many awesome things. From
teenagers stretched out end to end on the beach, reading their Bibles and
completing devotionals, to awesome male leaders guiding impressionable young
men, who do not necessarily have a male role model, good, bad, or otherwise, I
am in awe of the work God is doing in so many lives.

Nature brings out the eternal optimist in me. It’s hard
to argue a godless world in sight of all the organized chaos coordinated into a
universe which actually works. Right now I am sitting on the balcony, typing,
as my five girls are eating the remaining contents of the fridge, giggling in
the living room. I can hear the surf pounding the shore in this rhythmic pace
like a divinely conducted orchestra, interrupted occasionally by the shrill
sounding laugh of a teenage girl.

Honestly, this week the diet has gone down the toilet.
Other than the daily devotionals, I haven’t done much reading. Today is my
first time to write all week. I kinda forgot to pay bills, which should have
been done on Monday. (I’ll do it via phone on the bus ride home.) And, yeah, none
of those things were part of the ultimate plan, but if I had it to do over
again, I totally would.